


Of Monsters and Miracles

by LaReineDuLune



Category: The Old Guard (Comics), The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Angst, Booker redemption, Boys In Love, Canon Gay Character, Canon Gay Relationship, Dodgy Fictional Science, Family, Found Family, Immortal Husbands, Immortal Husbands Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Love, M/M, Warrior Husbands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:07:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25535596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LaReineDuLune/pseuds/LaReineDuLune
Summary: Booker sucked in a large, deep breath, “When Merrick had you and Nicky. When Dr. Kozak was working on you, did they… did they take semen samples?”Joe was taken aback and felt some new emotion gnaw deep in his gut. “What?” he gasped.“Joe, you have to see where I’m going with this.”“I… I don’t know, we were in and out of it a lot. There were so many drugs in our system, we died many times. I have no specific memory, but maybe? I don’t know. She took a piece of everything else. Why? Why?”“Because I have Nicky’s son with me,” Booker said after an eternally long pause.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 384
Kudos: 1544





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> For the purpose of this tale, we're going to pretend Quyhn is still MIA. Sorry Quyhn!

Of Monsters and Miracles  
© 2020 La Reine Du Lune

In the past tens or so years that Nile had been with Andy, Joe and Nicky, she had learned a great deal about herself as a person and the capacity of her heart. That was why shortly after their separation from Booker, she began messaging him. His betrayal of the team had ensnared her, but she’d not been part of his plan any more then the others had been part of hers. She couldn’t stop herself from reaching out, believing it down to her bones that turning your back on someone with such severe depression would only make their state worse. She may have been the youngest of the group, but she had a perspective the others didn’t. Her mother always told her to _“Lead with love, baby.”_ So she did. 

They spoke on occasion too, and given how technology continued to advance, she could ring him up anytime anywhere and see his face and know that the despair in his eyes was a little less dark as time went on. She knew the others knew about what she’d been doing but they never said anything and neither did she.

Therefore, late one night when they were on the outskirts of Athens having returned from a mission in Northern Africa, she didn’t hesitate to accept the incoming call.

“Hey Book,” she answered with a yawn. She invited him to engage a video call, but he declined it. “You there?”

“I need to talk to Joe,” came Booker’s sombre voice.

“Is everything ok?”

“Joe, please Nile. It’s an emergency.”

“Ok. Just hold on a second.” Frowning, Nile left her bedroom and descended the stairs, finding Joe and Nicky together on the sofa. Joe watched a soccer game on the television on mute while Nicky slept soundly with his head pillowed in his love’s lap. “Joe?”

He looked up at her with a fond smile. She held the phone out to him. Confused, he accepted it and put it to his ear. He heard the other man’s breathing and made a noise.

“Don’t hang up. It’s important,” came Booker’s pleading voice. “You know I wouldn’t have called you unless it was the most extreme circumstances. It is. It’s really fucking bad, Joe. I found Dr. Kozak, the one from Merrick’s lab.”

Joe felt his blood run cold. ““I remember. It’s not likely something I’ll forget. Ever.”

“I know, listen. I wasn’t looking for her. I was in Marseille, just minding my own business and I saw her. I started tailing her.”

“I’m listening.”

“She’s still working, at another research lab, for a company that’s a subsidiary of Merrick’s. You know I’ve always been up on technology, got in on the ground floor of just about anything?”

“Yes, you were always very good.”

“Their firewalls challenged even me, but once I was in I was able to back up all her data, but what I read was so out of this world that I had to get in and see for myself…” his voice trailed off and he sucked in a large, deep breath.“When Merrick had you and Nicky. When Dr. Kozak was working on you, did they… did they take semen samples?”

Joe was taken aback and felt some new emotion gnaw deep in his gut. “What?” he gasped.

“Joe, you have to see where I’m going with this.”

“I… I don’t know, we were in and out of it a lot. There were so many drugs in our system, we died many times. I have no specific memory, but maybe? I don’t know. She took a piece of everything else. Why? Why?”

“Because I have Nicky’s son with me,” Booker said after an eternally long pause. 

Joe was rendered speechless and from her perch on the chair opposite them Nile saw the colour completely drain from Joe’s face and she knew something was deeply wrong.

“Can… can you say that again?” Joe looked down at the man in his lap and tried very hard not to scream into the void. The rage he felt could’ve triggered a volcanic eruption in that moment. 

“As soon as I saw him, I knew. There’s no mistaking those eyes, is there? He’s just a baby Joe. They had him in a lab. He was so cold, there were tears in his eyes but he didn’t make a sound, but I could see how desperate and scared he was, and no one came to him, no one… Joe, they were…” Booker choked on a sob. It took a lot to unsettle Booker and conjure the level of emotion that was in his voice. “God, he’s just a baby, Joe. I’m taking care of him, good care of him. I promise. But I think he needs to be with you and Nicky.” There was a long stretch of silence and a lump sat in Joe’s throat and he lost his voice. “I destroyed the lab, Joe. I was thorough. There was a freezer full of embryos. I blew the damn place up. You didn’t see it on the news? She’s fucking sick, Joe, as bad as Dr. Mengele. Her notes, what she thought of these children, it was so cold. All she saw was specimens to experiment on. Those poor children.”

“Children? How many?”

“Four failed, she said, not genetically viable, she said. She let them die, or… or… she.” Booker took in a ragged breath and Joe didn’t press him further.

“Where is she?”

“I called in Copley. His people have her. I wanted to kill her, but I wasn’t my choice to make. I had her for 48 hours before I handed her off. Listening to her talk for an hour was enough. I didn’t let her speak again. Maybe I could’ve done more, got more information our of her, but I had to take care of the baby.”

“Where are you now?” Joe couldn’t properly process any rational thought, not when the magnitude of Booker’s words felt like a stake to the heart such as they did. He looked at Nile and down again at the oblivious man sleeping under his care.

“I’m outside Nice now. I packed my shit and got the hell out of town as soon as I met with Copley. He doesn’t know about the baby, I made sure of it. I told him the rest. About the experiments, the dead kids. Where are you? I can come?”

“No, Turin, meet us in Turin, at the house.”

“Ok, I’ll be there in a day. Did I do the right thing, Joe? I wanted to contact you right away, but when I saw the baby I had to act.”

Joe took a sobering breath. The implications of the whole situation were astronomical. He didn’t know what the right thing was, but he knew Booker’s heart was true when it came to children and there was no one else in the entire world Joe would’ve trusted besides the four of them in the house with Nicky’s son. “You did the right thing, Booker. I’m in your debt. We’ll see you in a day.”

Joe disengaged the call and looked directly at Nile. His face was dark and it made her nervous. “Nile, wake up Andy. We need to talk, and we need to get to Italy.” Nile nodded and moved quickly.

“Nicky?” Joe implored, giving his love a shake, “Nicolò, _destati_.”

***

Nicky cracked his knuckles again, testing the bones to see if they’d finally properly knit themselves back together. He knew it had been pointless to beat his hands against the stone wall outside the house in Athens, but he had no other outlet for his rage and despair other than on himself. His fists had been bloody, deformed pulps and his voice had been screamed hoarse. 

Afterwards Joe had come to him, having given him space after telling him what Booker had discovered. It had been a decade since he and Joe had been in that laboratory being picked apart by the odious woman who thought they were little more than mice to be manipulated and abused for her inglorious ambitions. They’d moved on after, not giving her a second thought, not destroying Merrick’s building and everything in it. It was a grave mistake he regretted beyond measure, and now an innocent child had to bear the consequences.

He'd clutched at Joe and sobbed. He had never wanted to be a father, having discarded the notion when he’d joined the priesthood. He and Joe had cared for children over the years, when they’d found them in desperate and miserable conditions. They had helped them on to better lives, but had never kept them more than a few weeks at a time. They’d never grown attached, never formed a bond beyond being kind caretakers. He didn’t want to have to experience Booker’s insurmountable grief when they died. Now it had been thrust upon him against his will and he hadn’t any notion on how to cope with the reality of it. There was also a question that begged an answer. Who was his son’s mother?

The entire trip to Turin had been exceedingly tense and quiet. After they’d left Athens, Joe hadn’t been distant, but he’d also not touched Nicky as he usually did. He hadn’t held his hand, or leaned against him, and Nicky desperately wanted to ask him how he felt about the situation. They would talk in time, Nicky knew, but he worried this might be something that would test their millennium long bond like nothing else ever had before.

The safe house in a small village outside Turin was better than most of their hideouts. It had three bedrooms, a working kitchen and fruit trees on the property that was surrounded by a thick laurel hedge and a wrought iron fence. It was strategically perched at the top of a hill and most local folks thought it was a rich gentleman’s country escape. They paid someone in the village to be the caretaker and Joe had called ahead to ensure it was stocked up with food. As an afterthought he asked that there be supplies and food suitable for a baby. Booker hadn’t specified the child’s age, but there’d be formula and baby food and hopefully one or both would suit.

It was night when they arrived. There was already another car in the drive once they were through the gate. Booker had already arrived. Andy was out first, followed by Nile. They unloaded the trunk of the car and Joe and Nicky followed, Nicky trailing every further behind. The door opened a crack and a sliver of light escaped from within. The opened door fully as they approached. Booker put his hands to his lips indicating they should be quiet.

“He’s sleeping, finally got him down after his bath,” Booker yawned. To their eyes their errant family member looked drawn, gaunt and exhausted. 

“He’s been crying up a storm, I bet,” Nile commented offhandedly.

Booker shook his head. “He doesn’t cry. I think he’s learned not to.”

Nicky’s jaw tensed. What would have had to have happened to a baby to get him to ignore his most basic instinct to cry out for food, warmth, comfort? He felt his stomach roil.

“I check on him every hour – to see if he needs changing, if he needs anything. He’s healthy, has a good weight on him. He shakes when I hold him though, like he’s scared. I don’t know what to say guys.”

“You don’t need to say anything, Book,” Andy offered as she bestowed a kiss on his cheek and moved past him into the house. Nile followed, giving his hand a squeeze as she passed and he was left looking at Joe and Nicky. A moment passed between all three and eventually Nicky broke the tension.

“Thank you,” he spoke, taking Joe’s hand in his, the first contact they’d had in hours. Joe’s face darted quickly up to Nicky’s. “I don’t know how I’ll be able to repay you for what you’ve done.”

Booker shook his head. “No need. I was a father once. You never forget it. The boy needed someone, and for whatever reason, it was me.”

Nicky hesitated to say what had transpired was destiny, but the thought crossed his mind. “You were the right man, Booker.”

“Do you want to see him? He’s sleeping, but you can see him. Or maybe not?”

“I would like to,” Joe said out of the blue, turning to Nicky bedside him. “If that’s ok with you?”

Nicky nodded. “Let’s go.”

The stopped short once they’d closed the door behind him. Nile was coming down the stairs with the boy in her arms. He was older than Nicky or Joe had expected. When Booker had said there was a baby, they expected a newborn, but held firm to Nile’s hipwas a little one who looked as if he was ready to walk. He wasn’t more than a year old, but he wasn’t fragile and tiny. He’d been in Kozak’s lab for months. In the instant when Joe looked into a pair of blue-green eyes he knew as well as the moon and the stars, that the child was indeed his  Nicolò’s . He couldn’t quite describe what emotions he was feeling in those first few seconds, but it was akin to love. The boy was of his Nicky, and as much as he wanted to snap Kozak’s neck, the baby was pure and innocent and deserved nothing but kindness from him.

“I couldn’t help myself,” Nile spoke. “I just wanted a peak but he was sitting up.”

“It’s ok, Nile,” Booker spoke. “He only sleeps for an hour at a time. I think she had him on some sort of schedule. He should almost be sleeping through the night at this age.”

“Motherfucker!” came Andy’s sudden curse as she returned from wherever she had been. “I fucking _hate_ science! That lunatic!”

“Boss?” came Joe’s confused response.

She stared at the boy in Nile’s arms then levelled a dead, furious stare at the men. “Look at the shape of his ears, Nicky. Look at his nose. Hell, look at his hair!”

Until his name had been spoken, Nicky had been in a state of inertia. He had been staring at this child before him and seen himself reflected back at him from the same eyes. He felt his soul contort at the thought that they’d chosen his mother to so resemble Joe, to have given him the mop of black curly hair atop his head. It was cruel twist, but now at Andy’s words, he felt his heart nearly stop. He studied the baby, who looked at them with both curiosity and fear, and he connected Andy’s thoughts.

“No, it’s not possible,” he replied.

“Give an ambitious, immoral, malicious lady her own lab, enough money and free reign to play God, who knows what’s possible. She’s had ten years to get it right.”

“I don’t understand,” Joe spoke. He looked to Booker who was shaking his head in disbelief. “Boss?”

“Joe, he’s not just Nicky’s son. He’s yours too.”


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2  
  
It was hours later that Nicky found himself staring down at the little boy on the bed he was meant to share with Joe. The baby was bathed in moonlight and had a mountain of blankets tucked around his tiny body. He was surrounded by pillows and in his sleep, was the perfect picture of innocence. Nicky had been studying his features intently, trying desperately to will it not to be true that somehow this child possessed both his and Joe’s genetic code. Nicky thought it tragic he’d not been made from love, though in a sense by virtue of himself and Joe, he had been. By all accounts the boy was a perverse science experiment, but he had Joe’s nose, and his ears, and those gorgeous black curls that looked so soft Nicky wanted nothing more that to reach out and caress them. 

Instead he continued to stare and thought about all the ways he could kill Dr. Kozak. They had made a mistake in leaving her alive, and an even worse one for not returning to destroy the samples she’d take from them. 

Nile had volunteered to start sorting through the data Booker had stolen. Andy had been in deep conversation with Copley for over two hours and no one was inclined to interrupt her. Booker had gone to have his well earned night’s sleep after he put the baby to bed. That had left Nicky and Joe to watch over their son and that was where Nicky found himself while Joe had excused himself to take a shower. Nicky suspected he wanted time alone to process Andy’s dire realization. 

He came into the bedroom some time later, a pair of joggers slung low on his hips and his chest bare. He smelled of soap and a freshness that made Nicky feel fond. The two men stood at the foot of the bed shoulder to shoulder, staring down at the boy in a silence as grave as a tomb.

“We could find a good family to raise him?” Joe ventured.

“We could,” Nicky replied, nodding his head. “But what if they can’t handle him? If he’s different than regular children? We don’t know what Kozak did to him. Or even how… how she created him.”

“Nile’s preliminary account said she somehow extrapolated DNA from each of our sperm, spliced and combined them to create a series of Y chromosomes to combine with a donor egg.”

“So he has a mother?”

Joe shrugged. “There was an egg and a surrogate, unnamed in the files so far.”

“Those poor women. Were they even the least bit willing? Does the woman who gave birth to him miss him? Was he stolen from her arms? Or was it just a financial transaction for a service rendered and she was none the wiser about the baby she was carrying? It’s disgusting, either way you look at it.”

“You’re not wrong.”

“He looks like you, Joe.”

“He looks like you too.”

“I don’t know what to feel for him.”

“When my eyes met his, there was a _knowing_ of a sort. I saw your eyes. I _could_ love him. Not because he’s mine, but because he’s yours.”

“You’re right. It would be the same for me. If that is what we decide.”

“We don’t have to make that choice here and now.”

There is a tiny gasp from by way of bed and both sets of eyes refocused on the baby. His eyes darted around frantically in the dark and filled with tears. Small and helpless, he bit into his bottom lip with his few teeth to stifle his cries. Nicky and Joe shared a look and a second later, they acted.

Nicky rushed forward and with his thumb brushed over the little boy’s lip to stop him from hurting himself while Joe’s hand eased under his head before picking him up and bringing him to his chest. Nicky rubbed at this back and offered soothing words while pressing kisses over his fat cheek and forehead.

Joe swayed, trying to calm the boy, feeling him hiccup and gasp for breath. 

“He’s scared to cry,” Nicky whispered, anguish crawling up from the pit of his stomach. 

Joe looked at Nicky with grief stricken eyes and found the same sorrow in his. The boy’s small hands pressed hard into Joe’s chest and he shuddered, his sobs silent and all consuming.

“What do we do?” Joe pleaded.

“Get on the bed and keep him close.” Joe did as Nicky suggested, propping himself against the pillows as Nicky arranged them. Once settled, Nicky resumed rubbing his back and pressing kissed to his wet cheek. “ _Stai calmo, tesoro_.”

Nicky came in closer and lay his cheek to Joe’s chest, nose to nose with the baby and began to sing a low, soft lullaby, pulling the blankets back around his body and cocooning him in their shared warmth. Booker had said the baby had been cold in the lab and the memory of that knowledge was dagger in Nicky’s heart. Joe’s hand came up and covered their son’s head, massaging his scalp gently. After that, it didn’t take the baby long to fall asleep again and when he finally did, both men let out long, grateful exhales.

“Where would we go?” Nicky asked.

“Are we doing this?” Joe replied, already knowing the answer. The baby’s weight on his chest along with Nicky’s was something he felt visceral and protective about.

“Are we?”

“Yeah, Nicky, I guess we are. I always thought you’d make a good father.”

“So would you.”

“It means leaving Nile and Andy. No more missions.”

“I know. Booker will stay with them. His penance is more than fulfilled.”

“So, where do you want to go?”

“Some where safe and stable. Somewhere he can grow up without worrying about war. The world has changed so much in the past ten years and will continue to change. It has to be somewhere we can be small and quiet where we can get boring jobs and blend in, be a normal family.”

“Well we’ll never be that, will we?”

“No, I don’t suppose we will. I have some ideas. Canada? New Zealand? Or somewhere else in Europe? Romania. Not much happening in Romania these days.” Joe paused and looked Nicky in the eyes. “Is this destiny, do you suppose?”

“As sure as I can believe that we are. What other explanation can we come up with?”

“Oh, Nicolò, what are we doing? What are we _going_ to do? What if he’s not like us? What do we do when he… when…” Joe’s voice hitched and Nicky snuggled closer to comfort him.

“We don’t know what the future holds. We don’t know if he will one day inherit our immortality, or if instead he will grow old and die. But what I do know, is that we will give him the best life possible. He’s a baby, we will love him easily and if we lose him, it will inevitably destroy us like when Booker lost his sons, but we won’t give in to despair. We’ll keep him as a happy memory, we’ll keep him in our hearts like the miracle he is.”

“I’m scared to love him as much as I do you.”

“I know, Joe, me too, but I know you. It will happen no matter what, we shouldn’t waste time resisting it.”

“Your years have made you wise, _habibi_. He’ll need a name.”

“We’ll all need new names. Our fathers were Razin and Martio.”

“No, too much. Too old. We’ll think of something,” 

Nicky yawned. “I hope you’re comfortable because I’m going to sleep. He’s settled for now, I think. You look beautiful together, _amore_.”

“We’re fathers, Nicky. I’m terrified.”

“We’ll be terrified in the morning too, but at least we’ll have had a couple hours sleep.”  
  


Morning came far too quickly for any of them, but it was Booker who rose first, making his way to the bedroom where Joe and Nicky slept. The door was wide open to let the air circulate. He leaned on the door jamb and watched the three in the bed. The baby was sprawled out on Joe’s bare chest. Nicky’s arm was flung across Joe’s waist, his face against Joe’s ribs and legs half dangling off the side of the bed.

“Didn’t take them long, did it?” Andy asked as she came to stand at his side.

“We should’ve made a bet,” Booker replied with a slight smile.

“How are you? This can’t be easy for you.”

“It’s fine. It’s been a long ten years and I’ve had a lot of time to think. I never appreciated what you all did for me. All I could see was my past, never my future. When I saw that little boy, alone, abandoned and trapped, it awoke something inside of me I haven’t felt in two hundred years. A child deserves a home where he is loved and protected, Joe and Nicky will give him that.”

“You’ll be there too. Book, I’m pretty sure I speak for the two of them, after this, you’re welcome back with us, if you want.”

He didn’t say anything but nodded his head. “We should leave them be. The baby hasn’t slept this long before, I’d like him to get more rest. Did you stay up all night with Nile looking over Kozak’s research?”

“Not all night, just most of it. Booker, she’s a monster. We can’t let her live. I don’t care if that makes me a monster too.“

“No, I agree. She treated the baby like he wasn’t even human. I wouldn’t be surprised if my hands were the first to hold him that didn’t cause him pain. I pray that the effects of his trauma will not be long lasting. She had a whole team of assistants. We’ll have to find them too.”

“We’ll do our best, and they’ll do theirs. In case you forgot, Joe and Nicky invented love – the boy’s in good hands. C’mon let’s get breakfast started, the new parents are in for a hell of a wake up call.”

“They may never have sex again.” Andy stifled her laughter and tugged Booker away, sparing another glance at the three on the bed. The baby’s hand was curled around one of Joe’s fingers.  
  
Changing a diaper was old hat to Joe and Nicky, under normal circumstances, but diapers had changed a lot in the time since they’d last handled an infant. The comedy of errors that morning had Nile laughing her ass off before she intervened and rescued them. The boy took everything in good stride, all things considered. Her cousin had three kids. Nile could change a baby in the dark with two hands tied behind her back. Booker had got all the basics for him at some point, including diapers, powder, wipes and zinc cream, plus a few a changes of clothes. After the baby was finally clean and fresh, the new fathers stood there in shock and Nile was highly amused.

Joe had wakened first. His neck ached from being propped up all night, but he didn’t dare move, not when the baby and his Nicolò slept so soundly. The trust his son had already given him made his heart swell. He had not realized hours earlier that the depth of love that was brewing in him could ever compare to what he felt for his husband of nearly one thousand years, but already in the span of one night, he knew he’d go to the ends of the earth to protect their son. The connection was there and growing exponentially. He took Nicky’s advice and didn’t fight it. 

He was lost in thought when suddenly Nicky was kissing his lips. He reciprocated with equal fervor before slowly pulling away. “I have thought of a name for him,” Nicky breathed. “A venerable name.” He looked down and saw the baby had awakened and Nicky kissed his forehead, “ _Buongiorno, mio piccolo principe_.” Nicky smiled at him and baby stared at him with a nearly blank expression, but still met the eyes that matched his own and did not flinch or look away.

“Your _Baba_ and I have a name for you, my tiny love,” he spoke on a hushed tone. The baby turned to Joe and reached up to tug at his beard before pulling himself up the by hairs while Joe endured and winced at the pain. When the tiny palm landed on his nose, Joe smiled. “He likes your beard as much as I do. Do you love him already, Joe?”

“Of course I do. And you?”

“From this moment on.”  
  


The smell of eggs, bacon and warm bread came wafting through the house, drawing everyone else downstairs. Joe carried the baby on his hip with Nicky and Nile following at his heels. 

“Andy, want me to message you the 74 pictures I took of Joe shirtless holding the baby?” Nile piped up.

“I’m extremely disappointed you haven’t already,” she replied, smiling fondly at her friend holding his son. 

“Send them to me too,” Nicky responded, giving Joe’s ass a smack as he passed him to pull a chair out for him. Nicky kissed his shoulder after he sat down before taking a seat himself.

“Want to come to Aunty Nile, cute stuff?” Nile asked as she held out her arms. Joe chuckled and lifted the baby up to pass over to Nile, at which point all hell broke loose. It began with a flinch and a whimper from his son before he let out a squall. Nicky noticed the change in him immediately. The baby began his silent sobs again before the damn burst and he began to audibly scream and cry. Being separated from Joe even by an arm’s length had sent him into a panic that rippled through the entire room like a bomb. Knowing that he’d likely been conditioned not to react whenever Kozak had touched him, to have so incredible reaction shook the new fathers to their foundations. Immediately Joel pulled the baby back and spun him around to hold to his chest again. Joe’s wide panicked eyes looked to Nicky, whose expression matched his own.

The baby screamed and beat against Joe with his tiny fists, becoming increasingly hysterical.

“Let him have this,” Booker spoke plainly to the panicking fathers. “Take him back to the bedroom and comfort him, he felt safe there. It’s scary but it’s a good thing, trust me. He’s been abused for months. He’s not going to get over it in a day. He needs to learn how to be with you two. If he’s crying after being conditioned no to, it means he already trusts you not to punish him for it.”

Joe nodded and rose. He and Nicky making a quick exit. 

The baby’s cries carried through the house and the other three sat in sombre silence.

“Unless Joe and Nicky want to do it themselves. I want to be the one to kill Kozak,” Booker spoke plainly. “There were four other children. She murdered them and as far as I’m concerned. She doesn’t deserve another breath.”

“No argument here,” Andy spoke. Nile sighed, her heart breaking for the two men and for their son. She hoped the adage was true and time really did heal all wounds.  
  


Once back in the safety of their room, Joe’s shoulders began to shake with emotion as his own tears began to fall. Nicky kissed him, on his lips and his cheeks, his neck, before moving to the baby and doing the same. A tear slipped down his own cheek and he wrapped his two loves in his arms and held them close. After what seemed like eons the baby’s sobs turned to quiet whimpers and hiccups. He struggled in their tight embrace and Nicky eased back, only to be met with his small hand reaching to touch his face, patting at the wet tracks of Nicky’s own tears while his other hand tangled in Joe’s beard.

Nicky turned and kissed the little palm before accepting him into his arms as he moved from Joe. With a heavy, exhausted sigh, their boy snuggled against Nicky.

“He’s probably starving by now,” Nicky mumbled, stroking his son’s dark curls and rocking him. Joe nodded and furiously wiped his own tears from his eyes.

“I want to strangle the life from her with my bare hands,” Joe growled.

“Hey,” Nicky soothed, and Joe cursed himself.

“Sorry, sorry.” He turned to their son and offered him a smile. “None of that talk in front of you, eh?”

“As soon as he’s settled with us, we’ll move on, ok?” Nicky proposed. “We’ll get passports, establish a new past for each of us, and him. Booker will help. We’ll disappear and stop for as long as he needs us, or longer. Forever, I don’t care, so long we are together.”

“What about Kozak?”

“You don’t think Andy, and especially Booker, will do what we ask of them? She won’t get away with what she’s done. This perverse destiny that brought us a son, a son made of you and me, is not something I would trade for anything now that he’s here, but she won’t be allowed to go without punishment. She’ll get what she deserves, and we’ll be spending that time raising our son. We’ll have peace, Joe.”  
  


When they returned to breakfast the boy was moody and restless, clinging to Nicky and now, finally vocalizing. It wasn’t until a mush of oats and banana was offered to him that the baby’s mood shifted. He devoured his breakfast. It sobered Joe to think that his boy had never tasted something sweet and delicious before, given how enthusiastically he ate. Booker looked on with a warm smile as the boy reached for the spoon Joe offered.

“You guys are naturals,” Nile commented. “I’m sorry about earlier.”

“No need to be,” said Nicky. “He was scared, but not of you. He let you help with his diaper earlier, remember? He’s learning a whole new way of being, outside of some mad woman’s laboratory. Listen…” Nicky looked to Joe, who nodded his consent. “Joe and I are going to be here for a few weeks, until our son settles into being with us, and then we’ll be taking Sebastian far away, where no one will ever find us.” The other three paused mid-mouthful and Nicky grinned at Booker. “You understand we couldn’t go with _Sébastien_ , of course.”

“Too French,” Joe explained with a wink as the baby opened his mouth for another spoonful.

“You… you named your son, after me?” Booker spoke in shock, emotion catching in his throat.

“If it weren’t for you, he’d still be in a lab. We owe you everything. Should anything ever happen to us, we want you three to take care of him. You’re his family. We are a family.”

When Joe was a little slow with his food Sebastian gave a loud, indignant squawk and Joe kissed his chubby cheek before resuming feeding him.

“Thank you, for rescuing our son, Booker,” Nicky spoke, reaching across to place his hand on the back of the other man’s neck and giving it a firm squeeze. He sat back and with his other hand stroked his fingers through Sebastian hair. “You all know that I still believe a higher power, and that I believe in destiny. Your betrayal of us was a deep wound that we thought we needed one hundred years to heal from. We misunderstood each other, somewhere along the way. We expected you to follow us into the future, when we should’ve taken your hand and guided you with us. We didn’t see the depth your pain and for that I am truly sorry. You know now you should have come to us, but the divine works in mysterious ways and had you not betrayed us, Sebastian would not be here.”

“All is forgiven,” Joe spoke, spooning the last of his breakfast into Sebastian’s waiting mouth. “Thank you for our son, dear brother.”


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

_7 years later…_

“Papà, where is he?” the young boy asked of his father, who stood at the stove preparing their evening meal.

“You know he arrived on a different airplane than your aunts,” Nicky replied, stirring the torn leaves of fresh basil and oregano into the sauce simmering on the stove. “He will be here for dinner. Why don’t you go outside and help Baba prepare the table, no? Aye! Careful Sebastian!” The boy had launched himself at Nicky and hugged him from behind, sending him off balance, before running out of the open door at the side of the kitchen and into their back yard where his Aunts Nile and Andy relaxed after their long journey. From the hill upon which their home was situated, they had a clear view of the South Pacific Ocean. The evening weather in November was clear and warm, with a breeze rolling off the waves.

They had settled in Mission Bay near Auckland, New Zealand six months after Sebastian had first come into their lives. It had taken time to establish their backgrounds and identities without Copley’s involvement. They were resolute and remaining completely under the radar. Finding the perfect home to raise their son had been more of a project than a chore. They’d spend countless hours pouring over information until they’d found what they’d been looking for. The house was a rather large and spacious new build with the most breathtaking view they’d ever set eyes on. Furthermore, it was on a high point, no one could target them from above. Not that they expected to be found. Booker worked tirelessly to scrub their images from the internet and the records of any and all governments he could hack into.

They were Nicolò and Yusuf again on paper, but most knew them as Nicky and Joe, the hot gay couple all the moms at Sebastian’s Elementary School fawned over who worked as History and Language Professors at the University of Auckland. They’d met whilst studying at Oxford. Nicolò was from Italy, Yusuf from Tunisia, and they’d been together for fifteen years. Sebastian had been born via surrogate, but neither would admit to who his biological father was, always insisting they were both his father, no one wiser to how true their words were. They’d taken their honeymoon in New Zealand after university and fallen in love with the country, deciding to immigrate shortly after their son was born.

They were scholars, they wore wedding bands, they took their son to houses of both their faiths, they taught him languages and the history of the world, and above all they were free and they were happy.

“Sorry Papà,” Sebastian called over his shoulder as he bound outside the door in search of his Baba. Nicky sighed contentedly and concentrated on preparing their meal. Booker was due to arrive any minute, having been undercover in Germany. He ensured that he was done in time to make it home for his namesake’s 8th birthday. They’d had a party the day before with all his friends from school, but this night was for family. Dr. Kozak’s records had revealed his birth date.

The boy went running headlong towards Joe, intending to crash into him like the small human wrecking ball that he was. Joe was often exasperated that his and Nicky’s son never seemed to slow down. While he devoured books like he did his food, he spent more than half his time climbing trees and running around until he was exhausted before crashing to sleep for eight hours straight. They’d got him into various Martial Arts after school and he took to them like a duck to water. Joe had started him on the fundamentals of Tahtib, but to him it was just play and bonding time with one of his fathers. The kid was pure kinetic energy, but at the end of the day, still wanted a cuddle from his parents. They weren’t sure how much longer they’d have him be so sweet and innocent, so they coveted every second of it.

“Woah, where’s the fire?” Andy asked over her drink as Sebastian zoomed past her. There was a lot more gray in her hair, but Andy’s personality hadn’t changed much since becoming mortal. She was feeling the weight of her years, but whenever her reserves were low, she only needed to see or talk with her nephew to light the flame in her again.

“I have to help Baba!” Sebastian crowed, running circles around her patio chair, grinning like a loon before dashing off to where Joe was setting the table out on their veranda. Andy laughed at him as he went careening headlong into his father, who just managed to put the wine glasses in his hands down before catching his son and swinging him around in the air. The pair spoke in hushed tones no one could hear, Sebastian’s arms around Joe’s waist as he continued to set the table.

“It’s a good thing he’s cute,” Nile spoke taking a seat next to her friend. “My cousin’s three kids combined never had that much energy.”

“There’s a reason I’m only an Aunty,” Andy replied. “He is a pretty great kid though, and he has his quiet moments.”

“Well there won’t be any for a while.” Nile inclined her head to where Booker was driving his rental car up to the side of the house.

“Uncle Book!” came Sebastian gleeful cry, running into Booker’s open arms the moment he was out of the car. With the boy’s arms around his neck, Booker lifted him up and wrapped his arms around him. The pair had a special bond and they all knew it. There was a sense memory there, that while Sebastian didn’t seem to have retained any memories of the first year of his life, he seemed to know instinctually that Booker was his protector.

The others watched the smile stretch across Booker’s face as his eyes closed for the moment he savoured his nephew’s embrace. He loved the boy as if he was his own. Booker set him on his feet and Sebastian looked up at him in anticipation. “What you can’t even wait until after dinner?” Booked asked with feigned offense. “D'accord. Comment se déroulent vos cours de français?”

“Papà a dit que mon français est meilleur que tante Nile!”

“J’ai aucun doute.” Booker reached into the car and brought out a stack of books by René Barjavel, handing them over. “These are probably a little old for you, but you’ll catch up. They’re in French so you may need some help. We’ll start one together tomorrow. And before your fathers ask, they’re the ones best suited to your age. We’ll get to his other books in a few years. He’s one of my favourites.”

“Thank you, Uncle Book.” The boy clutched the novels to his chest reverently. His uncle always brought him books, or sent them to him from all over the world. Joe and Sebastian had read a fairy tale book collection of _1001 Arabian Nights_ in Arabic from cover to cover together, a gift that arrived out of the blue with a post mark of Oman. That had been the tip of the iceberg. No child in the world had so fine a collection of books as Sebastian.

It was hours later, after dinner and a birthday cake had been devoured, that they group migrated to out on the lawn where Nicky and Joe had constructed a fire pit. They lazed around a crackling fire, with the lull of the waves crashing on the shore in the distance. The moon rose high and all were at peace. Sebastian’s energy had been spent and he sound sleep stretched out across his fathers’ legs on the blanket they shared while Nicky stroked his fingers through his hair.

“See that tree over there?” Joe pointed. “The Pohutukawa. The big one. Sebastian climbed it, never mind how many times we told him not to. He got half way up before he lost his grip.”

“He snapped his fibula and tibia in his left leg when he hit the ground,” Nicky continued. “They discussed surgery, but after a second x-ray it showed the bones had aligned themselves perfectly to heal.”

“Holy shit! Why didn’t you tell us? When was this?” Nile asked, sharing the same look of shock as was on Booker and Andy’s faces.

“Two weeks ago,” Joe provided. “You should have seen him, he handled it way better than Nicky or I did. We were hysterical.”

“Fuck me,” Andy breathed out. Booker’s jaw tensed and he stared into the fire.

“It didn’t heal right away, like we do. It took at least ten days. His cast could be removed to bathe and by the fifth day he could already move it without much pain. We’ve kept him home all this time, letting him rest. Joe and I traded off being home with him. He goes back to school on Monday. We’re telling the teacher it was a minor fracture, but that he was in a lot of pain and was best at home.”

“His scrapes and bruises last no more than two days.”

The tension was thick among the group until Nile spoke again. “Guys we’ve poured through Kozak’s research more times than we can count. She only got hung up on the baby thing when all her work on your genetic codes came up empty. There’s nothing unusual in your DNA. Nothing. As far as science is concerned, you’re as normal as the next man.”

“And yet, our son continues to grow as a normal child would, but heals from injuries in less than half the time he ought to,” Nicky sighed.

“What do we do?” Booked asked, taking a drink from his bottle of soda.

“Nothing,” Joe spoke. “We just thought you should know. You remember how terrible that first year was when it came to taking him to a doctor’s for his check ups and vaccinations.” Joe shuddered and the memories and Nicky sought for and took his hand, lacing their fingers together.

“A kind of magic, then?” Booker supposed, laughing at the notion.

“Who’s to say?” Nicky sighed. “It doesn’t matter. He’s still ours, all of ours. Nothing changes.”

  
_And another 7 years after that…_

“Is the knot secure?” Nicky asked of his son as he circled around him to stand on his other side. “And what are the lines called?”

“Sheets?” Sebastian answered. Their son had been asking for Nicky and Joe to teach him how to sail ever since the winter, and now that it was spring, the weather was calming down enough to take them out into the waters of the South Pacific.

“Good, correct.” At sixteen years old, their son was becoming a very accomplished young man. He was strong in his academics as well as his athleticism, but above all, he was kind and still wanted to spend time with them over sneaking off to parties with his friends.

Joe was below deck putting together their lunch. The winds were low, but enough to carry them back towards home at a steady pace. It had been a good morning, and they’d be home before dinner. Nicky smiled at their son as he looked up the length of the mainsail into the lost heights of the clear blue sky. They’d spent many, many days out on the water together, Joe always determined catch a prime Orange Roughy for their dinner. He was more often successful than not. Their son was becoming a man and there was a sense that he was losing his innocence, knowing the bubble they’d been living in all these years could only protect them for so long. They knew Copley kept looking for them, no matter his promises to Andy that he wasn’t. Booker knew better and worked tirelessly to make sure he or anyone else ever got anywhere. The fathers would move Heaven and Earth to keep their boy from being ensnared back into the world he’d been created in.

“So… I kinda have something I want to tell you and Dad,” Sebastian ventured. Nicky’s heart ached a little every time their son called them Dad instead of Baba or Papà. He told them he’d grown out of it, but there were times when he wasn’t conscious of himself and did. They supposed peer pressure, wanting to fit in, and calling them something that wasn’t English was embarrassing to a teenager. They didn’t mind so much. They still got a hug each night before he went to bed.

“Do you want to wait and tell us while we have our lunch?” Nicky asked, a hint of concern in his voice. Sebastian nodded his head and rolled his shoulders, clearly with something heavy weighing on his mind. “Ok.” Nicky caught his eye and gave him a smile before carrying on to the main part of the hull towards the stern to set up a place where they could eat. They hadn’t had the boat out in almost a year and it was to Nicky’s great remorse that he’d failed to check the integrity of all the lines. One of the strays snapped when a massive and sudden gust billowed the sails and they lurched forward. Another loosened that controled the boom. The boat lurched as a big wave rolled up under them and with it the boom went to for swift swing across the hull. Sebastian grabbed on the railing behind him to stay on his feet, and because of this was able to watch in abject horror as his father was struck with the full force of the boom right in the center of his forehead and sent over the edge into the water. Sebastian cried out, the sound inhuman and terrified.

Joe was already emerging from below and followed his son’s gaze out into the water where he saw his husband’s inert form rapidly sinking. “Stay on the boat, not matter what!” Joe ordered before rushing headlong across the hull and diving straight down into the water. Minutes passed and the boy stood motionless, shrouded in an instinctual fear and had him trembling and sobbing. They’d been down far too long. Nearly ten minutes passed, at which point Sebastian was convinced he’d just lost both his fathers, when Joe finally emerged from the water with a heaving gasp of breath. Sebastian shook violently as he helped His Baba haul his Papà back on the boat. Then the true horror set in. Nicky’s face was a badly bloodied and bruised mess, with a shocking protrusion that had Sebastian turning to his side to throw up.

Joe reached for him and Sebastian sobbed.

“He’s dead!” he cried and Joe pulled him near until they were embracing over Nicky’s prone body.

“Wait, wait, just watch,” Joe pleaded with him, pressing his lips to his son’s temple to try and give him some semblance of comfort. Joe waited with baited breath until finally he saw the healing process begin. Nicky’s skull folded itself back together, the contusion receded and the skin healed over. A few second after that, Nicky coughed up a lungful of sea water, sitting up and heaving until finally he could draw a proper breath. He eyes settled on Sebastian’s stricken face and he could barely hold back his own tears.

“Oh, caro figlio,” Nicky sighed wearily. He lay his hand to his son’s face and kissed his forehead. “I’m so sorry you had to witness that. My baby, I’m so sorry. We will tell you everything.”

“You… you were dead,” Sebastian sobbed. “You were both under the water for so long.”

“I can hold my breath for a long time, I’ve had a lot of practice,” Joe explained, holdings his son tighter as Nicky wrapped his arms around both of them. “We will tell you everything.”

It was near dark when they reached the shore and moored their boat at their dock on the beach at the end of their property. They’d sent Sebastian below deck to calm down and sleep. Nicky had stayed with him until he’d drifted off. It was a long and quiet walk from the beach, across their lawn and up to their house. They’d kept Sebastian between them, who had his arms wrapped around himself, their hands on his back as they guided him. The entered their home and dispersed to clean up after their harrowing day.

Sebastian took the longest and they gave him space until he came downstairs, just as they were putting dinner on the table. They ate in silence, the mood decidedly heavy. After they cleared away their dishes there was nothing left to allow them to procrastinate.

Many a movie night had been spent together on their giant sectional couch, the three of them stretched out and close. As the years passed, Sebastian grew less inclined to cuddle with his fathers as he had as a little boy, but the memory of Nicky laying dead had carved him out and when his father had sat himself down, Sebastian went gladly into his welcoming arms. Joe sat on his other side and put an arm around his shoulders, resting his hand on his husband’s arm.

“We’re going to tell the story of how your fathers met and fell in love over one thousand years ago over the clash of their swords in the deserts of the Holy Land,” Joe began but then paused, looking to Nicky. “No, wait. Let’s go back further, we’ll start with the story of Andromache the Scythian.”

They talked well into the night, and Sebastian listened, plastered to their sides, trying to absorb the fantasy they were imparting to him knowing deep down that it was all true. Nicky and Joe shared a look and carried on until they’d told their son everything up until him being rescued from Kozak’s laboratory. They had wanted to wait years more to tell him the truth of his origins, but fate and forced their hand.

“We searched for your mother. We were tireless, followed every lead, for years. In the end, all we knew of her came from a DNA test from you. She was of Middle Eastern descent, which is why your skin is a little bit darker than your Baba. It was the one grace Dr. Kozak granted us, to have chosen someone from a people we loved, though I suspect it was merely coincidence,” Nicky concluded.

“Please, if you remember anything else from all we have told you, it is that we love you more than we could ever express in words,” Joe spoke softly. “You are beyond the moon, the stars, and the sun to us. You are our whole universe and from the moment we first held you in our arms, we loved you with the entirety of our souls. We had loved each other for a thousand years and did not realize anything was missing until you were gifted to us. Without you, our lives wouldn’t be worth living.”

“Will I be immortal one day too?” Sebastian asked hesitantly.

“We cannot know. You surely have realized you heal from injuries far quicker than what is natural. Until you die your first death, we will not know. Don’t chase that possibility, my son, because there is every chance you will not awake. You could be lost to us forever and our hearts would be broken beyond measure. You can have any life you want, and we will love you no matter what. Your happiness is all that matters to us. Do you understand?”

Sebastian nodded. He looked back and forth between his fathers, before turning and curling into Nicky. Joe came closer and wrapped both his loves in his arms and Sebastian kept a tight grip on his wrist. Sleep came quickly after that for all of them. The day had been overwhelming.

They’d awaken around four in the morning and Sebastian left them, accepting their embraces before he went to his own bed. Nicky and Joe shared worried looks between them as they watched him stumble sleepily off to his room.

“C’mon, let’s go to the bedroom,” Joe urged. Nicky let out a shaky breath and nodded his head. “Things will be different in the morning.”

“Different, yes. Better? I doubt it, Yusuf.”

“We have no more secrets with him, there’s that at least.”

“At least. That is all, there’s nothing good about this. He’s too young. I wanted to keep our baby a little longer. I have so many more fears for him than when I woke up yesterday.”

“Me too, _habibi_ ,” Joe sighed, nuzzling his face against his husband’s neck. “We won’t fail him, and we won’t let him fall. We won’t.”

Nicky sniffed and blinked the tears from his eyes, turning into Joe’s arms and holding on to him for dear life. “We can’t lose him, Joe, we can’t.”

“We won’t. I swear it on my life.”

When Sebastian awoke late into the morning, he heard the murmur of many voices downstairs. He’d barely got more sleep, spending all morning until dawn thinking back not only on the stories his fathers had told him the night before, but on the events of his entire life, a life that had been idyllic by every account. There was no denying the love he felt from his fathers, or the love they felt for each other. To imagine they had been together for one thousand years was nearly unfathomable. None of his friends’ parents’ marriage even came close to compare. His fathers barely if ever argued. Every day he’d witnessed the kindness and fondness between them, and the joy. They were joyful in their love for each other, and that extended to him. Sebastian knew to his core that his family’s love was real. It made the truth all the more difficult to swallow. He didn’t know his place any longer, or what do expect from his future. He was muddled in his mind and didn’t know what to do other than place one foot in front of the other and carry on into that future to navigate the best he could. He showered and dressed and knew already what to expect when he went downstairs.

They were gathered around the dining table, a veritable feast of every imaginable breakfast piled in the centre. Andy, Nile and Booker sat opposite his fathers, an empty chair for him between them. Silence fell over the group as he entered and took his seat.

“How did you all get here so fast,” he asked, looking at each of them. His gaze lingered on Andy, now knowing she was nearly 7000 years in age but mortal. She was aging, albeit slowly. She was going to die one day.

“We were in Singapore,” came his Uncle Booker’s reply, lifting up the tray of bacon and offering it to his nephew. Sebastian took several strips before Nile passed him the platter of scrambled eggs. “Joe messaged us yesterday, we got here as quick as we could. You ok? All things considered?”

Sebastian shrugged, feeling small and awkward.

“We’re the same people you’ve always known, kid,” Andy supplied, tossing three large pancakes on to his plate. “You just know a little more about us. Besides, I’m mortal now, so I’m like you. Your dads and these two are the weirdos.” She grinned at him and he felt a familiar warmth in his heart. His Aunt Andy, always dry with her wit and generous with her support. There was his Aunt Nile, who was motherly and related to him, the youngest of their group. She was the one who’d watched cartoons with him on Saturday mornings and let him eat the sugar laden cereals his fathers never allowed him. And last the was his Uncle Booker, who loved him so fiercely, sometimes it was a little scary. Sebastian remembered once when he was twelve years old and he’d been bullied at school for having two fathers. Booker had been ready to hunt down his bullies and scare them into submission before Joe and Nicky approached the situation with diplomacy. Booker, who sent him an endless library, who would drop everything to talk, who met them for family holidays anywhere in the world, always showing up as a surprise. Of course, there were his fathers, who were so devoted to him that he’d never known anything but love and peace his whole life. As much as Sebastian was their whole world, the people around the table were his.

He let himself relax and reached for the pitcher of maple syrup, generously pouring it over everything. “So, I’m one hundred percent sure I’m bisexual,” Sebastian spoke aloud before stuffing a forkful of food into his mouth. There was a moment of silence and he smirked, glad he could drop a soft bomb on everyone after the giant one he’d been hit with the night before.

Joe laughed out loud and clapped him on the back, while Nicky ruffled his hair.

“Welcome to the club, kid,” Andy spoke, kicking his feet under the table. The tension was broken and Sebastian smiled inwardly. His family hadn’t changed, it had just got more interesting.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

_7 more years down the line…_

“You both worry far too much, y’know that?” Sebastian chuckled, as his fathers stood stern faced before him. The pair were side by side with their arms crossed over their chests, twin expressions of worry and frustration on their faces, which their son found adorable.

“Aoraki Mountain is far too advanced for you. Wait and try it in a few years, _por favore_ ,” Nicky begged of his son.

“We’re not even doing the peak, just one side, and the easy path to the first base camp. How else am I going to improve if I don’t try?” Sebastian reasoned. “Uncle Booker would never let anything happen to me, you know that.”

Joe muttered something unintelligible under his breath, in what Sebastian thought might one of his older Arabic dialects. Joe worried his bottom lip and Sebastian sighed. “Baba, come here,” Sebastian beckoned, accepting Joe into his arms and kissing both his cheeks. “I’m 23 years old. I’m not an idiot. I’m a good climber, and Booker is taking me up the mountain, not the other way around. I’ll be careful. I’ll listen to him and I won’t do anything stupid.”

Nicky joined his two dearest loves, and they welcomed him into their circle. “Sebastian, we know this, but we cannot help but worry, you understand? You may be a grown man now, but you will always, always, be our little baby. We can’t help but worry for you every time you’re not in our sight. We trust Booker, of course we do, but we do not trust the mountain.”

“It’s summer. The weather is going to be clear for the next two weeks. We won’t even be gone that long.”

“It’s on the south island, you’ll be too far away,” Joe complained.

“Hey, I could be going to Tibet, look on the bright side!” He kissed them both and let them go. “It’s my last big thing before I go to medical school, let me have this, ok? And to make the point again, I’m going to Sydney for the next few years, it’s a lot further than the south island.”

“Bah, don’t remind us,” Nicky groused, already feeling as though their nest was empty.

“Papà…” Nicky waved his hand dismissively at his son. “You know sometimes you two are _really_ old.”

The crunching of car’s tires on their drive alerted them to Booker’s arrival. Somewhere along the way, Booker had gravitated away from being paternal towards his nephew and the two had become more like best friends. Both Joe and Nicky knew the heart of the matter. As Sebastian got older and more adventurous, wanting to show his independence, he needed a companion who wasn’t his fathers. He had many friends from school, but none could keep up with his zeal. Therefore, Booker had learned to surf when Sebastian had taken up the sport when he was seventeen. Booker was already fairly accomplished at rock and mountain climbing, but hadn’t honed his skills as sharp as they presently were until Sebastian had taken up the hobby two years passed. The pair had also gone backpacking together through parts of Asia. Joe and Nicky were grateful that someone was looking out for their wild child, but it didn’t make them worry any less.

Booker walked into the house and took in the scene before him. He looked at Joe and Nicky and felt a knot of tension form in the muscles of his shoulders. He cleared throat before speaking. “The weather is going to be perfect. We’re taking the beginner’s route. I climbed this same mountain sixty years ago. I have GPS on all my devices, and tracking fobs that’ll go on each of our belts. I’ve sent you both the details so you can literally login to the app and see exactly where we are in real time. We’ll have open communications if you feel the need to call and check up on him, or even just to say goodnight because you two have got to be the most overprotective assholes I’ve seen in my nearly two hundred and seventy five years of life.” Booker took in a breath. “Think of is this way, you can fuck outside of the bedroom for once and not worry about psychologically scarring the kid.”

“Wow, thanks Uncle Booker. Literally no part of me needed to hear you say that last sentence,” Sebastian cringed.

“Yes, but now they’re feigning being offended and hopefully it’ll be enough of a distraction to get out the door. It’s at least a 12 hour drive Aoraki.”

Sebastian nodded and before he could pick up the bag he’d left by the door, Joe and Nicky had rushed forwards and wrapped their arm around him and crushed him in a dual hug. He sighed and accepted that his fathers were never going to stop worrying whenever he went out the door.  
  


He and Booker drove in companionable silence for the first half hour as they headed south, until Booker finally spoke. “I know you don’t judge them too harshly, even though they annoy you. When you were a baby they spent half their time terrified someone was going to show up to try and steal you back. They both knew in their heads it was unlikely, but the worry gnawed at them constantly. That’s part of why we all stayed so close during those first couple of years. It wasn’t easy for them, or you, learning how to be with each other. A lot of terrible things had been done to you in your first year and you had to unlearn your conditioning. It took a long time for you to realize you weren’t going to be punished for crying for just being hungry. And god, the nightmares you had lasted for years. I remember Joe and Nicky crying as much as you did.”

“I don’t remember anything from before. My earliest memory is of Baba and Papà holding me and smiling,” Sebastian replied.

“Good. That’s how it should be.”

“They never told me what happened to Dr. Kozak other than that she was dead. I know not to ask them. Even the idea of her spooks them. I see it in their eyes. She’s like this ghost that haunts them.”

“She was a monster. She _is_ dead. I killed her myself.” There was a long stretch of silence and Booker sighed wearily. He hadn’t expected this trip to turn into a bearing of souls and a rehash of what he hoped was ancient past, but he had always been honest with he nephew, and Sebastian was no longer a child. “You came into a family of killers, Seb. I know it’s difficult for you to wrap your head around it sometimes because you’ve been shielded from it, but you’re no fool, I know what.

Your fathers literally gutted each other with their swords on a battlefield in a desert and probably killed a hundred mean each before and after that. I fought with Napoleon and left countless Russians bleeding out in the snow. After Joe and Nicky brought you here, Andy, Nile and I hunted down everyone connected with Dr. Kozak and killed them without a second thought. I asked your fathers’ permission, in case they wanted to kill her themselves, but they left it to me. It was a gift, to watch the life fade from her eyes as she stared into mine while I crushed her throat and strangled her with my bare hands.

You were a baby, Sebastian, not even a year old and she stuck you with needles on a daily basis, she cut into your flesh. She experimented on you and tortured in ways that shock me even now. You were nothing more than a lab rat to her from the moment you were born. Whoever the woman who gave birth to you was, I cannot imagine she was treated well, if left alive at all. It’s a miracle that you are here with me now with no scars on your body, and are a good and honest man, leading always with love.”

Sebastian remained silent for a time, ruminating over what he’d just been told. He knew most of it, but abstractly. It still didn’t seem real that his family had been mercenaries, soldiers, and warriors. He looked to his uncle and saw only the man who loved him like he was his own. “It’s because of my fathers, and you, and my aunts. I can only imagine you killing people. It’s always been hard to reconcile the family I know with the stories you all tell me.”

“It’s a side of us we’d hoped to spare you.”

“I know.”

“I once watched your fathers as they hung seven men up by their wrists in chains in an abandoned warehouse in Kiev in 1984, and slowly bled them to death because of what they’d done to a girl. I’ve also seen Joe cradle you in his arms and rock you to sleep while Nicky sang you old folk songs from Genoa he never could forget. I’ve seen their violence, and Andy’s and Nile’s, and my own, the likes of which you can’t even imagine. We are not good people, but we fight for what we think is right. None of us ever felt the blood was cleansed from our hands until they touched you. We love better than we fight, Sebastian. Let our pasts stay in your imagination. You’re a healer, not a fighter. You were like an absolution to us.”

The first four days of their climb were a dream. The weather was warm, but not hot. The sun was brilliant and the skies were clear. They were a few hours from the first base and snow crunched under their feet when they ascended to various plateaus. The work was arduous, but it was good. They’d slept under the stars and talked endlessly, Sebastian asking many questions about the lighter side of his parents’ history, but skirting around the topic of Malta when Booker informed him it was their preferred spot for sex vacations. Still, Sebastian enjoyed the stories of their team adventures. Things had turned solemn when Booker had let slip that he had been a father. They’d never told him, at Booker’s request, but with Sebastian’s encouragement, Booker spoke of his children, and the insurmountable grief that had followed their loss. Sebastian had held him when he’d been unable to stop himself from crying.

The earthquake was entirely unexpected. Booker had of course checked the latest seismology reports for both the north and south islands, and all the faults and plates off the coast. He was meticulous, never willing to take a single chance with his nephew’s life. Never. But, mother nature of course could never be predicted or controlled. They were scaling a particularly steep facade, but one with good purchase for their hands and footholds when the barest tremor alerted Booker. He was ahead of Sebastian, who was no more than two meters below him, easily following where Booker had wedged the metal nuts in the rock. Sebastian was tethered to him with a runner. He paused and let his senses reach out to assess things when the rumble seemed to ascend under rock and ripple through the entire mountain.

Both men went flat against the rock, taking hold of whatever they could to ride out the shaking and avoid any falling rock. They thought they were through the worst of it when a second onslaught erupted, the entire mountain seemed like it was shaking and the two men held on for their lives. After what seemed an eternity, the earthquake stopped. They waited for aftershocks but after a couple of minutes there was nothing more.

“So, Uncle Book,” Sebastian called up, “We’re turning around and going back home now, right?”

“Yep,” Booked sighed. “One hundred percent. Sorry kid, the trip’s over.”

“I am actually completely ok with that! We’ll take our chances with the sharks off Bondi Beach before I start school!”

“You know if you remind your dads about the sharks, they’ll be out in the water with their fucking swords threatening anything that comes near you, right? Ok, I’ll give you a head start and I’ll follow you down.”

It was then that once again, that the universe seemed to laugh at Booker. The boulder itself wasn’t some gargantuan the size of a car. It wasn’t even as big as a basket ball, but when it flying out of nowhere and hit him square in the chest, it felt as big as an asteroid. As he fell free of the mountain, he was vaguely aware of Sebastian screaming his name and that there was no resistance, no tether to anything, no salvation. There was just the assurance of the wind in his ears and the knowledge that he was going to die when he hit the ground.

He came back to consciousness after a time. The world had gone dark around him but he could see the stars above and the brightest moon he’d ever set his upon in all his long years of life. He blinked and gave his head a shake to clear the daze from it. Every nerve in his body seems to be radiating pain throughout. He knew his pelvis and his leg were damaged. He probably had a cracked sternum and broken ribs. He groaned and powered through his pain to roll himself over. Beside him there was another body, and he was dead, his neck broken from the impact against another boulder on the plateau they’d landed on. Too much knowledge came to him all at once. He saw Sebastian’s wide staring eyes, void of life, blood on his lips that had already dried. And then he saw in his mind’s eye, Joe and Nicky and the people they would become now that their cherished, beloved boy was lost to them.

Booker roared into the hopeless dark of the night with an anguish he’d not even felt at the deaths of his own children. With them it had been a quiet, damning sorrow, but this, this was a rage and torment that threatened to bring the mountain down. He crawled over to the boy and gathered him up in his arms, sobbing an endless stream of apologies, recriminations and prayer as he held him.

When Sebastian neck cracked and then realigned itself Booker was startled, and he damn near had a heart attack when the young man suddenly gasped back to life, immortal and whole. He looked at his uncle and tears came to his eyes. Booked held his face and sobbed, pressing grateful kisses to his forehead, a litany of thank yous to whatever god was listening tumbling from his mouth in French, Italian, and English.

“Book?” Sebastian questioned. “Am I… did I… was I dead?”

“You were,” Booker wept. “You were. But you’re not now, you’re one of us. My boy, you’re immortal. Santa Maria madre de dio, you’re a miracle.”

“Well, fuck.”

“Yeah, yeah, god yeah. Nicky and Joe are going to run me through with their swords for this.” He laughed. “And then they’re going to kiss me and cry.”

“We should try and make camp for the night. There’s no moving in the dark like this, but actually we could just jump off the edge, splat on the ground and wait until we wake up.”

“We wait. Your dads are probably freaking out right now, I’ll bet you a hundred bucks there’ll be a helicopter out looking for us at first light.”

“I don’t take bets I know I’d lose! I’d say we try calling them, but a quake that size likely will have knocked out receiving towers.” He paused and looked his uncle in the eye. “Baba and Papà won’t have to watch me grow old and die.”

Booker smiled at him and patted his cheek. “No they won’t.” He let him go and rolled over on to his back, grimacing in pain. He broke out in a cold sweat and suddenly everything was on fire.

“Um, Book? Should your ankle be at that angle? Uncle Booker?”

“Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

“What’ wrong?”

“I… I’m not healing…” He ground out. He tried to take a deep breath to calm himself but his ribs protested so violently he cried out in pain instead, and then he was laughing.

“Booker!”

“Oh the irony! I don’t want to die, not anymore. I don’t want to die, and here I am laying on a mountain side with half my bones broken, probably a hell of a lot of internal bleeding, but now I meet my end!”

“Stop talking like that!” Tears came to Sebastian’s eyes and he worked at getting out their sleeping bags and covering Booker while he started checking him over for injuries. He’d had extensive First Aid training and was pre-med, but Sebastian knew until they got his uncle to the hospital there was every likelihood he’d die. Booker lay there, tears streaming down his cheeks as his nephew checked him over and made him as comfortable as possible.

“Hey kid?” Booked asked, his voice rough as his lung capacity diminished. “It’s ok.”

“Shut up. I’m not letting you die. They’ll come for us. You just have to hold out a few hours.”

“I might not make it, so let me speak.” He searched for and took Sebastian’s hand in his and squeezed. “I have prayed for this every day since you came into our lives. I saw how deeply your fathers loved you, almost instantly, even more than they loved each other and that’s saying something. I couldn’t imagine them feeling the pain I felt when my own children died. I couldn’t bear it, so I begged and bargained with the universe and it saw fit to give me this, give your fathers this. No parent should ever out live their child, now Nicky and Joe won’t have to. I’m not ready to die, but I will go with peace in my heart because of you. You brought me back to life and back to my brothers and sisters. I love you and your parents with everything in me. I would sacrifice my life for yours a thousands over and never have a single regret. You have been my redemption, Sebastian, and my salvation.”

“I love you too, Book. Please hold on.”

“I’ll do my best… but... so cold...” Booker’s eyes drifted shut and he let out a long exhale. Sebastian sat alone in the dark and wept.

***

Incidentally, for those wondering, here is what Joe and Nicky's son looks like, as portrayed by German/Romanian model Cristian Codrin. Yes, his eyes really are that striking!  
  



	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The big quake, a 6.5 that emanated from very near the mountain where Booker and Sebastian were climbing, only rolled through Auckland as a slow parading wave. However, Joe and Nicky’s instincts kicked in, and it prompted Joe to drop his dinner fork and look across the table at his husband. The Nicky’s eyes went wide and wet with instant panic. They were twenty years out of practice, but they didn’t miss a beat as Joe quickly collected their long ignored go-bags to begin their journey south towards Wellington first and then on to the south island, while Nicky locked down the house.

Nicky’s deft skills and concentration perfect in his skill as a sniper also extended to his driving. They had at least eight hours before they reached Wellington, and then they’d have to wait for the ferry and drive on to Christchurch, but he was going to push for less than that as he wove out of their suburban neighbourhood towards the highway. Joe was on his phone in the passenger seat, searching for any and all information about the epicentre of the quake. They called both Booker and Sebastian multiple times, but received no response. They’d been having nightly conversations with their son over messenger, and perhaps could have waited things out until their usual time, but they knew down to their cores that their son and friend were not ok. Joe then set about amassing Search and Rescue, messaging Nile and Andy, and trying desperately not to fall apart at the seams with shear terror at nightmarish thoughts regarding the fate of their son and brother.

As they hit south island an infinite span of time later, their confirmation finally came that come first light, Search and Rescue would begin to look for them. They had a lock on their tracking fobs and GPS, so at the least time wouldn’t be lost searching for them all over the mountain. It was an hour after first light they received word Sebastian and Booker had been found and were being air lifted to the hospital in Christchurch. Both sobbed in relief to learn they were confirmed alive, but that was the only information that had been confirmed.

The hospital was largely silent when they arrived that early morning. It was them who unsettled the peace but charging into Emergency, circumnavigating anyone in their path until they reached the triage nurse. She looked up at the pair of them, ready to put them off but seeing the terror in they eyes caused her to internally back track.

“Our son, our friend,” Nicky panted, swallowing hard. “Please…”

Joe put a hand to his husband’s back. “There’s a Search and Rescue helicopter bringing our son and his uncle in from off of Aoraki, they were on it when the earthquake hit,” Joe continued.

The nursed sighed and turned to her computer screen. “Yes, they should be here in twenty minutes,” she explained. “I can take you to the waiting area near the helipad if you’ll follow me?”

“Is he ok? Our son, Sebastian,” Nicky pleaded.

She looked at her screen again. “One sustained minor injuries from the paramedic’s initial report, the other has a suspected concussion, broken bones – left ankle, pelvis, ribs…”

Joe covered his mouth to keep in his sob and Nick fisted his hands in the back of his husband’s jacket.

“And…” the nurse continued. “There’s possibly a ruptured spleen. He’ll be taken into surgery straight away for that.”

They followed dumbly after her as she led them to where they could wait. Leaving them on their own, Nicky slumped in a chair and Joe began pacing. “He’ll be ok, he’ll be ok. He’s alive, that’s all that matters. He heals fast. He’ll be ok,” Joe repeated in a litany, trying but failing to console himself. Nicky continued to wring his hands with worry. _“_ Nicolò, what if he’s not ok? All those injuries…”

“ _Habibi,_ ” Nicky implored, reaching for Joe and bringing him down to the chair beside him, threading the fingers of both their hands together. “Pray with me? We have kept our faith in God, in our family and in each other for one thousand years, we won’t abandon any of them now. Find your faith again, Yusuf, for me? For Booker, for our son.”

He bent his head to Nicky’s. With foreheads together and tears in their eyes, they clasped their hands tighter and begged God to spare their son’s life.

Minutes later the sound of the helicopter’s propellers outside alerted them that the time for prayer had ended. They rose together, hands still clasped between, their heartbeats racing, and eyes rimmed red from their tears. They stood helpless against the bank of chairs they’d been sitting on, cleaving to each in morbid anticipation. No matter how Sebastian looked, how bloodied, bruised and mangled he was, so long as he was alive, they could breathe easier. Just to see his eyes, to know that he knew they were there, it was all they needed in that moment.

Four nurses and two doctors came rushing up from the other end of the hallway, confirming to each other the Operating Theatre was ready and waiting, that they had blood ready to infuse, that the anesthesiologist was on hand, and when the doors to Joe and Nicky’s left burst open, the paramedics came running in, one holding a bag of fluid up high, it’s lead running down and feeding into the man’s arm. Another was straddling the man’s thighs, pressing and hard and deep into his chest every two seconds.

“We need a crash cart on the double,” one of them cried. “He’s gone into FVIB, hurry the hell up or we’re gonna lose him!”

And in seconds Nicky and Joe were left in their wake, as Booker was raced down the hall and around a corner, out of sight. A myriad of thoughts and their implications stormed their minds and it wasn’t until they heard the sound of another person behind them that they were shook out of their inertia. As soon as they locked eyes with their son, his knees gave out and he went to the floor. Joe and Nicky caught him before he could touch the ground. The three of them stumbled back against the wall, a tangle of arms all wrapped around each other, all awash in tears.

Sebastian buried his face at Joe’s chest and let out all the anxiety, guilt and terror he’d been holding since he awoke from his first death. Nicky kissed his cheek, whispering the same words in his ear as he had when Sebastian had nightmares as a child. “My baby, your Baba and I are here, you’re safe. We love you.”

They sunk boneless to the floor and held their son between them as he told them in broken sentences of all that had transpired on the mountain, and how Booker had traded in his immortality for Sebastian’s mortality.

“Can that happen?” Sebastian asked after they’d all gone quiet, still holding fast to each other. “Uncle Booker said he’d been praying for this since he brought me to you. He’s not even 300 years old and he’s mortal. Shouldn’t he have thousands of years like Aunt Andy?”

Joe sighed. “We’ve never understood the how or the why of it, my son. A thousand years have passed for us, and we’re not yet any wiser.”

“We can only imagine that it is some kind of magic, and if God wields that magic over us few, then we are blessed indeed,” Nicky tried to explain. “There’s not one of us who wouldn’t surrender our immortality to you. Booker has always been a tortured soul. He loved his wife and his children, and never recovered from their loss. It wasn’t until he found you that I would say he found any semblance of happiness. You’ve been the center of our family for nearly a quarter of a century. I think… I think Booker’s love for our family has let this come to pass. God had graced us with his mercy in that your Baba and I will never have to watch you die and live with that awful grief, and Booker…” Nicky’s voice trailed off, looking down the vacant hall, knowing their friend was fighting for his life.

“Booker is a tough old bastard, he’ll make it,” Joe finished. Sebastian nodded and a violent shudder passed through him, causing his fathers to tighten their embrace around him.

  
They ended up staying on the floor as they waited for news about Booker. Sebastian dozed lightly with his head on Joe’s chest and Nicky against his back, bracketing him between them and comforting him. Andy was on her way, as was Nile, but it would take some time for them to arrive, each from a different part of the globe. Nile, and even Andy, had dreamt of the mountain and what had happened. Eventually Sebastian eased down and lay his face against Joe’s thigh, while Nicky rubbed his back and Joe ran his fingers through his hair, the one thing that had always comforted him the most as a child. In that moment the two men imagined that perhaps even in a century, the son would still seek their love and comfort as much as he did now. He would always, always, be their baby, no matter how many centuries they had yet to travel through.

“Are you Sébastien Booker’s family?” came the voice of a young woman at the other end of hall. Joe gave Sebastian a shake as Nicky went immediately up to his feet.

“Yes!” Nicky spoke, suddenly fully alert, looking back at Joe and their son as they slowly came to. That pair had always been slow after sleep.

“Have you really been here for 12 hours?” the young nurse asked.

“We fell asleep,” Nicky shrugged. “Now about Booker.”

“Oh, right, you’re family? I’m only supposed to talk to next of kin.”

“He’s my brother,” Nicky spoke, knowing it was a truth of a sort, but he searched for a lie to give her. “Same mother, but different fathers.”

“Oh! Right, well why don’t you come with me to one of the family rooms, Mr. Booker’s out of surgery.”

“He’s alive?” Joe asked emphatically.

“Didn’t I say? Yes, he made it, terrific news, yeah? But the doctor wants to talk with you.”

Sebastian hugged Joe tightly and Nicky kissed his son’s forehead before taking after the swift moving nurse. They were led from the cold, lonely hallway by the helipad’s doors to a room off of Emergency with a couch, a table and four chairs and a tv. There was a coffee machine and vending machine in one corner. The three men sat together on the couch with Sebastian in the middle, this time leaning against Nicky. After a few minutes, and older woman of Maori descent entered the room. Her eyes were kind and she’d likely changed into fresh scrubs, but there were a few spots of blood on her shoes that she hadn’t noticed. She looked as tired as they did.

“Hello, I’m Dr. Tunoa, and you’re Mr. Booker’s brother?” she asked of Nicky.

“Half brother, but yes,” Nicky responded. “This is my husband, and our son.”

“Well, it’s very nice to meet you all. Your brother’s a wonder, that’s for sure. He’s in the intensive care wing after his surgery. His wounds are quite extensive. You were with him?” She turned to Sebastian, who’s eyes widened.

“Um, yes, I was. Uncle Booker fell, but I was below him and off to the side,” he lied, “I was able to climb down to him.”

“You were both very lucky, I’m glad you’re alright, son. You took great care of him. Now, I suppose you’ll want some more specific details. Mr. Booker’s injuries include a fractured pelvis, which we’ve stabilized. He broke his fibula just above the ankle, which we plated and screwed – that’ll come out in several months. He’s broke a few ribs, but there again, time and taking it easy will take care of that. He sustained a concussion, but not too severe and there’s no swelling on his brain. His liver is badly bruised, but will repair itself in time. The worst injury was his ruptured spleen, but I don’t mind saying I’m pretty great with spleens, so he’s still got his. Over all his prognosis is good, but he’s got a very, very long road ahead. Now, he’s not waking up for at least another eight or nine hours and when he does he’ll be hopped up on the best drugs we’ve got, so if I can suggest it, find a hotel room and come back around this time tomorrow. Leave your contact information with Vanessa at the front desk, and we’ll let you know if anything changes. Sound ok?”

Nicky, the boisterous fool that he was, wrapped the doctor up in an all encompassing hug and thanked her profusely. Hours later, after two large pizzas had been devoured in front of whatever mindless thing they’d found on the television, Sebastian lay sleeping, having showered and changed into the fresh clothes his fathers had brought for him. On the bed opposite him Nicky lay, watching their son, with Joe at his back and his arm around his waist.

“What are you thinking?” Nicky asked of his husband.

Joe kissed the back of Nicky’s neck. “That we owe Booker more than we’ll ever be able to repay him. That when he dies of old age, it’ll be as if someone has reached into my chest and ripped out my heart. I will have a thousand regrets and fervently hope that I’ll be able to continue to honour the man who brought us our son. I also think that, Allah willing, we will have many, many centuries with our not so little boy, and we three will know such a powerful enduring love that the stars will be jealous. I can speak this vow to you now, I will _always_ love you both with the whole of my soul and protect you with my body until my final death.”

Nicky smiled, but it faded quickly. “I’m scared for our future, Yusuf. I’m scared because he does not yet know how truly awful mankind can be, and one day all his innocence will be gone and our baby will not longer be that.”

“He’ll always be our baby. But one day, he’ll also be our friend and our brother. He’s only begun to teach us. We have all the time in the world.”

“Booker traded himself for Sebastian. We must ensure that the remainder of his years are good ones.”

“We will. Now, sleep. Andy and Nile will meet us at the hospital tomorrow. Nile was in Delhi, Andy in Hong Kong.”

“No, not yet, I want to watch him a little longer.” Joe kissed the shell of Nicky’s ear and buried his nose at the back of his neck, but his eyes remained open. Just as his husband’s were, just as they’d done when Sebastian had been small, they watched their son sleep, remaining his valiant protectors.

Andy yet again looked older, which made Nicky and Joe’s hearts clench. They hadn’t seen her or Nile in five years. There were new lines on her face and she’d never decided to hide the streaks of gray that now peppered her hair. Nile’s hair was _short_. She’d had her braids for most of the time they’d known her but she’d wanted the change. There hadn’t been much in the way of missions for them over the course of the past year. Copley was at his wit’s end, and had been since Nicky and Joe had disappeared. He was close to retirement and there wouldn’t necessarily be a replacement for him. Nile had been surreptitiously been listed as a next of kin, a younger sister. When the time came they’d clear out all his collected research on them and they’d be ghosts. Joe wondered perhaps if he owed the man an explanation. Perhaps one day, before he died, he would meet be Sebastian and finally understand.

In the meantime, they were stood around Booker’s hospital bed. Once Dr. Tunoa had deemed him stable they’d moved him to a private room. He looked like hell. He had more than one IV line in him, monitors plastered all over his body, and traction casts fitted on his mid section, pelvis and lower left leg. Not to mention there were a host of scrapes, cuts and bruises. Sebastian took the first sight of him especially hard, but Joe and Nicky had consoled him. Andy looked, disturbed and concerned. They were sure her heart was breaking at seeing him in the state he was in.

A young nurse came in and introduced herself as Maia. She was of Maori descent like the doctor, but there was something else in her that made Joe study her. He was struck by the boldness of her features and his fingers itched to sketch her. The long braid of black hair down the center of her pack begged at a memory of the women he’d painted with the pre-Raphaelites.

She smiled at each of them, her nose crinkling and her dark eyes bright, unbothered by their scrutiny as she checked over Booker’s vital signs and adjusted the flow of the lines into his veins. Then to everyone’s surprise, she tapped him on the nose. “Mr. Booker, your family’s here,” she spoke in a firm but soothing voice. Remarkably his eyes opened and she smiled at him. “There you are. You’re in the hospital. You were in a mountain climbing accident. You had to have surgery and you have many broken bones. Please don’t try to move too much. Do you remember?”

“Yes…” he croaked out and wince at the pain in his throat from where they’d intubated him. Before he could even ask she had a cup of water and a straw at his lips. He looked her in the eyes as he sipped and she smiled. After she set the drink aside she turned to the others.

“Now, you can stay for no more than an hour and then Mr. Booker will need to rest. I’m serious. If anything goes awry, I’ll be at the nurse’s station. If there’s an emergency, the red button on the wall will call a team in immediately.”

With a nod of her head and a flirtatious wink in Booker’s direction she left them in her wake, moving on to her next patient.  
  


His eyes followed her out the room before he turned to the others. “You all look like shit,” Booker mumbled, a grin plastered on his face.

It was Andy who came forward first, and leaned over him to press her lips to his forehead. “The first meeting for _Former Immortals Anonymous_ is tomorrow night,” she joked. “You couldn’t just get shot like the rest of us? You had to fall off a mountain?”

“It was all I had at the time.”

As soon as Andy drew back, Nile was there to kiss him on the cheek. “Now I have two mortals to babysit, you didn’t think I had enough stress with this one already?” She inclined her head towards Andy.

“Sorry, kid. But I guess you’re not the baby anymore, are you?”

“No thanks to you!”

When he saw Sebastian standing between his fathers, Booker’s jovial demeanour waned. He sighed. “No surfing next month, huh?” Sebastian shook his head, tears brimming in his eyes. “I’ll get there, Seb, it’ll just take some time.”

“Uncle Booker,” Sebastian whispered, but words failed him.

“Hey, it’s not so bad. The nurse is cute, right? What’s a couple months laid up? This is a new experience. I’ll catch up on my reading, watch some movies. I’ll be fine. Seb, it’s the way things are supposed to be. This is _right_. Just ask your fathers about destiny. You’ll have a lot of time to figure it out, and that’s what I wanted for you, for all of three you.” No one said much else, Booker’s energy already waning. His eyes closed and opened again and he was still smiling. Andy and Nile took their cue, there’d be plenty of time to talk over the next few weeks. They had Booker as a captive audience, and there was time for them to catch up properly. Andy had guided Booker when he gained immortality, and now she could guide him back to a life without it. Nile reached out and took Sebastian by his hand, promising him a milkshake as if was still eleven years old.

That left Joe and Nicky alone with their brother. Booker fought the urge to sleep, but he saw the question being asked from behind their too soulful eyes. “I didn’t do anything special,” he spoke, “I just wished and I prayed. That’s all. Destiny, right Nicky?”

“I suppose so,” Nicky replied, slipping his arm around Joe’s waist, tears brimming in his eyes.

“Joe?” Booker asked. The other man looked up to the sky, eyes wet, before leaning down and kissing Booker on his brow.

“Just wondering how many more miracles we’ll be granted. It’s staggering.”

“Tell me about, it, but it doesn’t exactly feel like a miracle at the moment. I think I need more drugs. I don’t suppose you could ask that nurse, what was her name? Maia? Maybe ask her to come back?”

“Rest, brother, we’ll return later. We’ll bring dinner for you, I cannot imagine hospital food will ever improve, no matter how many decades pass.”

“We’ve got a lot of time to talk,” Nicky added. “And a lot to talk about. Sleep well. We love you.”

  
The next eight weeks fell into a routine of sorts. Nile and Andy remained in Christchurch, and for the most part so did Sebastian. Nicky and Joe came down for weekends. Many conversations were had and in a surprising way, they were more revealing and intimate than what they’d had over the last 275 years. There was little talk of the future with Nicky and Joe other than insisting Booker return to Mission Bay to live with them until he decided how he wanted to spend the remainder of his years. Sebastian said a reluctant goodbye four weeks after the mountain before his fathers travelled with him to Sydney to get him settled in his apartment in preparation for medical school. It was too soon to go their separate ways, but despite being immortal, Sebastian still had to make his way in life independently. At his age, Nicky had already been a priest, and Joe had been travelling far and wide as a merchant. There was no denying the small comfort knowing their son couldn’t be killed, but letting him go was the hardest thing they’d ever had to do.

Nile and Andy went their separate ways, Nile back to Copley for work, for friendship, for maybe there had been a little more once upon a time. To Andy’s thinking it was time to consider her final decades more carefully. Her body was fit, but age had caught up with her. She’d bought a place on Salt Spring Island off the coast of British Columbia, Canada a decade before and it beckoned. They’d all meet up again in a few years, promising to return to New Zealand. Booker moved in with Nicky and Joe, taking one of the spare rooms. Joe and Nicky knew that they’d reached the threshold of believability for their ages. Neither one looked like they were approaching their sixties, and people were becoming suspicious. It was time to move on. The house would remain Sebastian’s, and theirs through the usual means. Another safe house, another home to come back to. This one would outshine all others. Here they’d been a whole and happy family. Where they’d be off to next was unknown.

One week after Booker had been brought home, a mighty storm rolled in off the ocean. The sky was alive with lightening and striking the ocean in a wild array of raw power. Thunder shook the windows and the three of them watched the storm from the safety of the house. They’d lost power and it was well after dark, but it was of no concern to three men who’d lived before electricity had been harnessed. Booker was healing well, but still using a cane to get around with his ankle needing physiotherapy to become stable again. Generally speaking he felt well. He didn’t know what he was going to do for the rest of his life, but he felt optimistic.

When a pair of headlights came up the drive, the three men were both concerned and confused. They hadn’t been expecting anyone. They’d messaged with Sebastian not an hour before and knew he was safe in Sydney. Perhaps Andy or Nile had come to surprise them? When a lone figure emerged from their car and ran to the front door, it was easy to discern it was a woman, making a beeline straight for shelter. Their door was opened for her and when a giant crack of lightning split the sky she cried out and leapt into Booker’s unsuspecting arms.

“Maia?” he asked, both incredulous and delighted. Over the eight weeks he’s been under her care, there had been an obvious interest and attraction between them. Booker had wanted to say something, anything, but he hadn’t been able to bring himself to tell her that he’d been falling in love with her. His mortality was too new. He hadn’t a single thought about his future. He hadn’t felt worthy or prepared for love again, even though it had been centuries since he’d lost his wife and children, but suddenly in that moment, he thought he might be.

Maia looked up at him with wide, dark eyes, sopping wet from the short sprint in the rain and a look of total wonder on her face. Nicky and Joe exchanged a knowing glance between them, clasped hands and watched in anticipation.

“You gave me your address,” she began, wiping the water from her face with her hands.

“I did,” Booker replied, breath thready and nervous.

“And remember how I told you that my parents lived all the way up in Whangarei?”

“I do.”

“They’ve always wanted me to move back, or at least be a little closer, and the hospital in Auckland’s always looking for more staff, so I thought maybe… and if you wanted.”

He nodded his head. “I want. I want.”

“You do?”

“Very much.”

She smiled at him, and the love that was shimmering in her eyes was reflected by Booker’s. “Oh good.”

He inclined his head just as she turned hers. His arms tightened around her waist and her hands slid up his arms to his shoulders before settling around his neck. As they fell into a sweet and passionate kiss, Joe and Nicky held on to each other, their own hearts bursting with happiness for their friend.

The pair stood there in a heated embrace, oblivious to the storm and that they were being observed until a loud clap of lightening and thunder outside jolted them apart. Somehow in that time, either Nicky or Joe had retrieved Maia’s bag from her car and set it beside them before locking up for the night, while the other had set out a pair of glasses, a bottle of wine and a box of condoms on the coffee table. They were nowhere to be seen, no doubt gone to their own bedroom to, like most nights, fuck each others brains out. Tonight to the rhythm of the storm.

“They are such assholes,” Booker sighed.

“They seem like pretty perceptive blokes to me.”

He smiled at her and captured her lips with his once more.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

_Four years later…_

They had gathered at the house in Mission Bay to celebrate Sebastian finishing his studies. He still had an internship and more to complete before he was officially a physician, but at the least, he was done with school. The family that had assembled were an eclectic bunch. Nile was there, her hair long and artfully braided, looking very much like she had when they’d all first met. Andy, who groused about her sore knuckles and her oncoming arthritis, had glued to her side a newly returned and newly mortal Quyhn. The woman was sharp but quiet, and not particularly trusting. Booker was wary of her, scared even by her intense and constant stare, but Andy assured him as best she could that they were in no danger from her. The past four years had been long and intensive ones for the two women. Still, Booker kept his eye on Maia the entire time they were not together, and when they were, he kept her close.

Two who were missing from their fold were a pair of twins from Ireland, Ciarán and Callum, two immortals who came into being shortly after Quyhn’s loss of hers. Nicky had waxed poetic that the universe had saw fit to be kind and not separate two who had been conceived and born together. Destiny could be merciful. The pair had been in a car crash late one night near the Cliffs of Moher on the Burren. No one had seen the crash, no one had seen them die, and the pair had their parents still living and had no desire to leave them. Both men had been home on leave from their roles as pilots from the Air Corps and foolishly got themselves very drunk at the pub and drove themselves home. Waking up from death was sobering indeed. Nile had already make contact, but it was decided to give the twins the space they needed until they were ready to leave their lives behind. It wouldn’t be until their parents had passed on. It would be a while yet as the twins were in their 30s. There was no need to force their hand. They were decent men and had the opportunity to live a couple more decades as themselves. All would come together in due course. Nicky, Joe and Sebastian dreamed of the twins frequently. Sebastian had dreamt of only Ciarán more than once and felt a yearning, a connection of some sort. Some of those dreams were exceptionally intimate, though he spared Joe and Nicky and details. His fathers said little in response to their son’s confession, Nicky offering only the sagely advice to let destiny lead and that all would reveal itself in time. Secretly, the pair hoped their son would find a love like theirs in this new immortal. In the meantime, Callum flirted with Nile relentlessly through any means of communication he could.

Until the time came when the two Irishmen joined their family, they were going to make the best of the time they had with each other. Booker and Maia had gone down to the beach together, Andy and Quyhn were outside on the veranda lounging, and inside the fathers sat with their son in their living room. Dinner was in the oven, though they still had a salad to make. It would be one of the last times they were all together. Joe was contemplative, Nicky was nervous, and Sebastian was quiet. He sat at the opposite end of the couch from them, who were, as always were wrapped up in an embrace.

“I think I know what I want to do,” Sebastian began, breaking the silence and propping his socked feet up on Nicky’s knees.

“What do you mean?” Joe asked.

“For the foreseeable future. I can’t imagine being stuck in a hospital day in day out, or a family practice, or even a specialty like brain surgery. I know I’ve got another few years to go and a lot of hoops to jump through, but once I’m done? I don’t want to settle down. I’ve seen a lot of what’s out there already thanks to you two, and I want to see a lot more, but because I’ve been raised by two very good and decent men, I want to do some good in the world. There are still a lot of awful places where there is suffering. I want to help alleviate some of it. Which brings me to you, Baba and Pap _à_. I know that you’ve been restless since I went to university. You stopped your lives to raise me…”

“Be fair,” Joe countered, “You _are_ our lives.”

Sebastian smiled at his father before continuing. “Some of the places that need people like me the most are also the most dangerous. The organizations that send doctors into these places also send body guards with them. It’s not unusual for one of us to get kidnapped for ransom, or killed so we’ll stop helping the refugees, or whoever they’ve got a gripe with. What I’m suggesting is a way for me to do what I do best, and you two to do what you do best, and keep the family together. Maybe in a hundred years I’ll want to go out on my own, but for right now, I’m not ready. I’m not even thirty yet, and we’ve always been close, so I want us to stay together. I already talked with Aunt Nile. She’s all in.”

“No surprise there,” Nicky said. His nerves hadn’t dissipated despite the reassurance they’d just received from their son. They weren’t ready to separate form him either. “We’re very proud of you, Sebastian, of the man you have become.”

“Thanks to you.”

“It will not be easy for you. You will witness your fathers killing people. It won’t just be stories any longer. You also will see the worst of humanity. The worst of what a man can do to another human being. It’s one thing to read about it or hear a report on the news. Seeing the aftermath is the true horror. It will change you, it may destroy you, for a time.”

“But if you’re there?”

“If we’re there,” Joe added. “If we’re there, we will do what we always have. We’ll love you, hold you, protect you and take care of you.”

“Is that a yes?”

“It was always going to be yes,” Nicky spoke laying his hand on his son’s ankle, his smile a sad one. “If you let us, we’d follow you anywhere.”

“I always will. Baba, Papà…” Sebastian swallowed hard. “I love you both, very much. Thank you, for everything.”

Joe laughed, laying his hand over Nicky’s. “We love you, muejazat ladayna, our miracle.”

Hours later when the house had grown quiet and most were a bed, Nicky and Joe lay outside on a blanket together on their lawn looking up at the stars. Nicky loosely played with the curls of Joe hair, easy to touch from where Joe’s head lay against Nicky’s stomach.

“I think Sebastian’s idea is a good one,” Nicky spoke. “I can spend the next few years while he completes his internship brushing up on my own medical practices. I’m over a half century out of date. He can teach me more once we start travelling. I can help him when he needs me.”

“He will save a lot of lives. We’ll be there to save his.”

“There’s every likelihood he’ll be killed at some point. I pity the person who does that to our baby, Joe. I won’t be responsible for my actions. It’s irrelevant that he’ll come back to life.”

“You’ll have no judgment from me, my love. We might argue over who gets to do it.”

“Or maybe we’ll get lucky and nothing will happen to him.”

“So far so good, I hope that luck doesn’t run out.” Joe caught Nicky’s hand and brought it to his lips to bestow a kiss on the palm as Nicky began to caress his husband’s beard.

“Let’s not tempt fate any longer, eh? There will be good moments too. We can show him the world beyond the eyes of a tourist. We can take him to the places we’ve been before and tell him our stories. We can walk the plains outside Jerusalem and show him where it was where we met.” Nicky smiled to himself at the idea.

“Soon we will be the eldest ones. That is a heavy burden to imagine.”

“You’re grieving already, I know. So am I. Our family will be changed irrevocably in a few decades. Andromache, Quyhn and Booker will be gone…”

“Don’t be so eager to push me into my grave, eh?” came Booker laugh as he dropped down beside them. Nicky’s arm reached out and brought Booker closer.

“If you were not so happy with your mortal life, Booker, I would will you back with us,” Nicky spoke.

“I know. If I wasn’t so happy, I would too. But, this is how things are meant to be.” Booker sighed and looked up at the stars. Many a night over the past three centuries they and Andy had slept out under the stars, talking until sleep took them. They were cherished memories. “I came out here to tell you both something. Maia’s pregnant. I’m going to be a father again.”

He felt Nicky’s lips kiss his cheek in congratulations, but silence hung in the air.

“How do you feel about that?” Joe asks after a time.

“Terrified. Hopeful. Happy, and then back around to terrified again,” Booker laughed. “I asked her to marry me last week, and instead of saying yes, she told me I’m going to be a father. She said yes eventually, after I stopped crying.”

“You always were a tender heart, when you let your guard down,” Nicky spoke. “You will be an exceptional father, Sébastien.”

“I want to be. I can’t make any mistakes this time.”

“You never made any last time, nothing was in your control.”

“I don’t feel particularly in control this go around. I want Maia to know the truth, but I’ve already been lying to her for four years. What do I do now that we’re bring a child into our relationship? She barely believes that all my training was from being Special Ops, let alone telling her anything else. I don’t like lying to her. I hate it.” There had been an incident one year into their relationship. He and Maia been coming out of a concert late at night and walked to where they’d parked the car when three muggers had come upon them. Booker had pushed Maia to safety and dispatched with them in less that 30 seconds. Another time he’d impressed her brothers with his marksmanship when they’d taken him out to shoot – nothing but tin cans – but Booker had hit all twelve of them with barely a glance or effort.

“You’re mortal, you’ll age, you’ll grow old together. She doesn’t need to know about your past. About us.”

“I want you to be part of my child’s life.”

“As do we.”

“So in ten years when you’re supposed to be in your sixties but still look like you’re in your thirties? What do I tell her then?”

“You tell her then. She doesn’t need to know that you were once one of us. Tell her just me, Sebastian, Nile and Nicky are special. Andy was always mortal, you were always mortal, we worked together. Spin the web however you like and we’ll go along with it.”

“A tangled web we weave… she thinks my wife and children died ten years ago, not over two hundred. She knows I’m an alcoholic, but she thinks I stopped drinking after the accident on the mountain, not twenty three years earlier when I found Sebastian. She knows a version of just about all my truths, but not the actual truth.”

“It will be easier to live with the lies than risk losing her to the truth? Is that what you’re afraid of?”

Booker nodded. “I can’t lose her, guys, I can’t. It will destroy me.”

“You won’t. She loves you. You are the love of her life, she has said so many times. Don’t feel so guilty, you’re protecting her, and your family.”

“Or I tell her everything in the morning.”

“Or you tell her everything in the morning,” Joe echoed. “We will support you no matter what. You can have the house, by the way, if you want. It’s a great place to raise a family. Nicky and are going with Sebastian to Sydney before we move on with whatever organization he aligns himself with. He told about what he wants to do? Once he’s fully accredited?”

“Yeah, he did. I can’t take your house.”

“I meant you can borrow it for fifty years. It’s Sebastian’s name on the deed anyways. We’ll be back to visit when your baby’s born. We’ll be back a lot. We’re going to spoil your kid rotten. Consider it pay back for how you treated our son.”

Booker laughed, feeling himself choke up. Nicky hugged him.

_A century or so later…_

A band of immortals sat around a campfire in a forgotten dwelling carved into a cave in the Lost City of Raqmu. The world had changed so dramatically, but in a certain way, it was just as it had always been. Civilizations had fallen, and a new awakening for mankind arrived in its place. A tipping point had come and while humanity struggled in the face of the consequences of extreme climate change, the world had also vastly improved. Empathy and care for the planet and all its creatures had finally taken precedence over the greed of the few. The Earth had finally been permitted to allow itself to heal, but they’d have to live a few more centuries before they could say the change had come. The skies however, never changed, nor did the stars. Nicky fought sleep as he lay cuddled to Joe, while their son was gone for the night, his legs strewn across his fathers’ laps and his head on the chest of his husband, Ciarán. Next to them Nile and Callum dozed in their own embrace. Three couples, a family, still travelling to wherever they were needed and where they could do some good.

“I got a message from Booker’s great-grandson this morning, I forgot to mention,” Nicky yawned. “I’ll read it to you in the morning.”

“All is well?” Joe asked.

“All is well. He wants us to come visit when this mission’s done. I said it was likely. He wants all his brothers, sisters and cousins, and their parents, the children, to all meet at the house. There’ll be so many.”

Joe snickered. “Booker had five children, nineteen grandchildren and I have no clue how many great-grandchildren, or great-great-granchildren there are now. Which one was it?”

“The oldest, Andreas. The one named after Andromache.”

“He reminds me of our Booker, that one.”

“I still miss him, and Andy and Quyhn. It seems like yesterday we were holding his newborn daughter in our arms and now she is long gone too. I would not change what we have now for all the world, our family, our son’s happiness, but I miss them.”

“We always will, _habibi_. But we have each other. In an ever changing world, we still have each other.”

Nicky looked fondly over at their son with his own husband before turning to his and accepting the kiss Joe offered before settling in his arms to sleep. Some things never changed.

The End


End file.
